Hot Water Heater

Buying a hot water heating system can be a very big financial investment. Some systems, solar water heating systems for example, can require more of a commitment. Whether you are making a purchase of five hundred dollars or five thousand dollars, you have worked hard for your money and want to protect your investment. This is where a hot water heater warranty can come into play.

These warranties are meant to protect you, the consumer, from unethical selling practices as well as manufacturing mistakes. In addition to these reasons, warranties are made to help you in getting your system back into working order with the smallest amount of money spent when there are other functional problems caused by you or not. Say you haven’t serviced your system properly, and the part breaks, warranties to the rescue. In the mode of consumer protection, warranties guard against you paying for the intentional misleading of sales personnel. We have all encountered at least one salesperson that is a bit too eager to sell an item that has obviously been returned. As far as manufacturing goes, no process is perfect one hundred percent of the time and lemons can occur. Hopefully these lemons are not a regular manufacturing happenstance, but warranties are still meant to help whether the lemon is a rarity or not.

Warranties can cover a variety of functions and have rules and regulations that govern their use. These regulations are in place to protect the manufacturer from an unethical or careless consumer. So as we see, warranties can benefit both parties, and both parties have obligations to meet before warranties are put to use.

Warranties are in effect from the date of installation. When one part has broken and been replaced, say at a four year period into the warranty, there is a warranty left for the balance of the time period stated on the warranty. The warranty does not start over again, but the remaining amount of time is covered under the warranty whether the part has just been replaced or not.

There are generally two parts to a hot water heater warranty: parts and labor. The parts warranty may be a different length than the labor warranty, but they may even be the same. It really is dependent upon the manufacturer. A general length of time for many warranties is a six year period. Of course this also varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Warranties’ time lengths and regulations are governed by the testing of the parts. The length of time that the manufacturer imparts to the warranty is the result of the consumer trials and laboratory trials. If a hot water heater has started breaking at a specific time period in its lifespan, the warranty typically won’t go far beyond that period. On some systems that have more components and include other mini systems, there may be more warranty divisions.

Warranties mean to either replace or repair, but this depends upon the extent of damage and the parts that need work. Some manufacturers have a warranty style that is split into different time frames for the same parts. For example, a three year full replacement but a twelve year parts repair or replacement. The whole water heating system may not be covered at the same time if a certain period of time has passed. Make sure to know the ins and outs of your water heater warranty.

Most of the time you will be held to using only an authorized repairman for the manufacturer. Say you bought a hot water heater system from Ruud. Well, you aren’t likely to be covered for a repair made by a Noritz repairman. Please read your warranty carefully before taking any actions if you aren’t perfectly certain of the regulations.

There are some things that could void your warranty, such as improper installation, unauthorized repair personnel, modification of any of the systems parts, improper use, and missing documentation such as purchase and installation receipts and warranty held. Know the repercussions of the actions you are contemplating. Follow the warranties regulations for uninterrupted service of your hot water heating system.

As you can see, a warranty can be a very useful and helpful thing to have. Knowing the time and money you have likely put into your unit makes reading and understanding your hot water heaters warranty a necessity. If you have questions, ask the manufacturer or the authorized repairman to get a sure answer. The numbers are listed on the warranty, and can also be found on the websites of the manufacturer or the contractor whom installed your water heating system. Know what the breakdown length is and what parts are covered and be sure to keep all relevant paperwork from first purchase of your system to the smallest repair and installation. These will very likely be required before any actions will be taken by the manufacturer.

The technological advances in heating water have really come into play just in the last two centuries. People have found various ways to get hot water to their homes, but some methods are still around in a slightly different form. The luxury of having heated water for bathing and washing dishes and other items was a strong catalyst for making improvements in water heating. Everyone loved to have hot water for baths, and those that could afford to pay for an apparatus that could produce that soothing temperature, were certainly apt to pay very well.

So of course, there was a demand and a market brought many people with many ideas in turn. Some were unreliable and didn’t work very well while some worked too well and were actually dangerous! There needed to be a happy medium. People put their ideas into actions and the wonderful types of hot water heaters that we know and enjoy today were fashioned. This process took many years, but where would we be if they hadn’t started back then? Let us take a look into some of the first trials and triumphs in water heating history.

How did it all start?

The method of heating water on a stove or fire of some sort and pouring it into the desired place was not a quick one. Often it could take hours to heat enough water for bathing. Time was precious then as it is now and people longed for a better way. One of those entrepreneurial souls was an Englishman Benjamin Maughan. Around 1868 he invented the Geyser. Known to work almost too well in getting the water very hot, extreme caution had to be taken. There had to be more advancement for water heating as the Geyser couldn’t be a stopping point. It was too great a risk for people in residential use.

Maughan’s work was not a total failure however, because most great inventions have had a start with the inspiration of a not so usable invention. A Norwegian immigrant to Pennsylvania named Edwin Ruud took off with the idea from Maughan’s invention. Of course the name Ruud is familiar as his ideas and inventions worked to enrich lives both poor and wealthy. He is a pioneer in America’s water heating technology and his goal is still alive today as the company he started. The Ruud Manufacturing Company is still going strong and advancing in water heating technology. His automatic storage electric water heater put him on the map and gave him a firm place etched in American plumbing all-stars. One of the most recognized and sought after names in water heaters today, when consumers and businesses alike look for quality and advancement, they look to a Ruud system.

When you think of solar powered water heaters, you might believe them to be a technology that has been only recently designed. Back in 1891, a man named Clarence Kemp from Maryland had the market on the sun powered technology that would change people’s lives and environment forever. In that year he patented the Climax. Sunlight, more readily available, and certainly cheaper, than oil or gas became popular for water heating especially in the western parts of the United States. There were many improvements that followed, but perhaps the most useful was in 1909 when William Baily started selling his Day and Night water heating system.

Baily’s system took Kemp’s idea to a new level in which an insulated storing tank style unit was added, producing the advent of hot water in the daytime or nighttime, hence the name. The technology that these two men gave their all to is still at work today and has given great comfort to many, especially in hard economic times when other natural resources were hard to come by for the poverty levels so widespread in many eras. Another great benefit, besides financial, to the work started by these men is on the quality of life for all living creatures and the Earth we all share. It is such a big benefit with such a small price to pay for the environment and the people who use the technology. You really can’t go wrong with an invention like that!

As you can see, some of the great starts began with not so great results. Those historic inventions have been an indelible stepping stone on technology for home comfort. Water heating hasn’t been the same since men like these have put their hearts and minds to a greater purpose than themselves. Each of them had their heart towards making a difference in the lives of people not only in their time, but for the future generations as well. The blessing of hot water to bathe in, wash with, and more would not have been possible without a kick-start from these first inventions.